Posted on 04/19/2019 8:31:03 AM PDT by Stravinsky
About three months after I’d given birth, I was invited to a recently-befriended mum’s house for a gathering of new parents and babies. As my bleary brain tried desperately to remember each adult’s name, and at least the gender of their corresponding tot, I suddenly realised we were one cooing, spewing infant short of a full set. How odd.
Later, as I happened on the lady I’d identified as childless refilling her mug in the kitchen, I inquired about the “little one”, wholly prepared to praise her willingness to leave him or her with someone else at such a young age. The tiny dote, she explained, was indeed with a neighbour. I gave her an encouraging smile. Then she got out her phone and proudly showed me a snapshot of her bundle of joy, on Instagram, of course. Blinking into the sun from the comfort of his very own swaddle, Buster was the smuggest schnauzer I’d ever seen.
Buster, it turns out, was just over two months old – a true “fur baby” in advanced social media parlance – and his doe-eyed owner assured us that she was just as consumed with sleep training and feeding regimes as we were. It was only when chatter turned to nipple cream, and how it serves wonderfully as lip balm, that her contributions to the conversation dried up.
Buster’s owner is among a growing breed of young people opting for pets over kids as the burden of raising a tiny human is losing its appeal for commitment-phobic, cash-strapped, travel-obsessed or simply career-prioritising millennials. Government data published this week shows that, for the first time since the ONS began collecting data, more women are getting pregnant in their 30s than in their 20s.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
SELFISHNESS...................
Ah, the memories...
I've had a lot of younger people (ahem Millennials and mostly hipsters at that) try to tell me that "parenting" a dog was more or less the same as parenting actual human beings. Yeah, okay.
It's also a bit of Peter Pan Syndrome as well (fear of growing up). Proper parenting requires that one become a proper grown up, and a lot of the Millennials - and again, a lot of today's hipsters - are deathly afraid of growing up for real. Having a dog can make you feel like you're a grown up / responsible for something without the permanent commitment that comes with raising a child.
They’re not broke and not scared of responsibility. They like pets.
Stupid article, just as I’d expect from the guardian.
It is the result of social acceptance of birth control
It is also the result of having grown up with absent parents. Spending one’s infancy in day without a mother is damaging to the psyche. There is a lack of parenting instinct in these young people
I blame their parent, my peers. They are the clueless ones.
So many comments are saying that it’s the environmentally responsible thing to do. LOL. These are the types that fly all over the place, Instagram everything, insist on having the latest technology, etc. They have huge carbon footprints, but oh no, kids are too environmentally damaging. Please. It’s just a poor excuse for not wanting to take on the responsibility and give up the free time. Millennials (and I’m one) refuse to see how self centered they are.
As a dog owner I hate that name Fur Baby. My dog is not a baby, he is a puppy.
In the case of my millennials, they can’t afford kids. They’re barely keeping their head above water. Sad. Big families are now discouraged also.
I’ll take “Scared of Responsibility” for 400, Alex.
Same goes double for the LGBTQ’s.
All I ask is "Who raised them?"
Best essay on the social self-destruction of the West I’ve read in many a moon:
“12 Years a Slave: The Making of a Modern Woman”
People of my generation are in their mid 20s to mid 30s. Time to grow up and quit blaming previous generations.
I haven’t read the article yet, but most of the “fur baby” people I know are younger boomers and older Gen Xers. Millennials do not have a monopoly on avoiding personal responsibility.
I know there are always people who say “I don’t know that I want to bring a new life into this world, considering the current state of affairs”. People have probably been saying that since ancient times. However, in a world in which your kid can decide to change its gender when it’s in the first grade (and this will eventually be forced on parents), I don’t blame people for opting for pets.
They party until they are thirty something then suddenly realize they would be in their 50’s and 60’s when the should be having grandchildren instead of children...............
Homosexuals who have the good sense of decency not to procure actual human infants refer to their pet animals as “fur babies”.
To each his own.
Maybe they know that they could not take care of a human baby appropriately.
There is nothing wrong with having or adopting a pet.
That teaches them responsibility too and maybe after a while they will be ready for a human baby, who will enjoy playing with the pet as he or she is growing up.
(Grammar NAZI gripe - it’s REGIMEN, not “regime”. Geesh I hate that...regime-regimen-regiment.)
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